Emergency Procedures
by Chloris
Summary: "Evacuation protocol Theta. All personnel report to the air field." Rey's first day back on D'Qar. (Post-TFA).


Sometime before sunrise, mere hours after falling gratefully into an unfamiliar bed, she is jolted awake. An alarm is whooping like a dying bantha outside her door and it sounds like the entire Resistance is pounding down the hall in steel toed boots.

She is out of bed and feeling around for her lightsaber before the flat voice coming through the comm system penetrates her sleep-slow brain.

" _Evacuation protocol Theta. All personnel report to the air field. Evacuation protocol Theta."_

 _One night of peace_ , she thinks. _That's all I wanted_. Swearing under her breath, she shoves her feet into her boots, flings her still-packed bag onto her back, and races out the door.

It's lucky that everyone is heading to the air field, because after three months away on a pebble-sized island in a planet-wide ocean, she can't remember where anything is. Were these hallways always so long?

She bursts into the cool night air in a crowd of Resistance personnel. People are pushing past her in a thousand directions, shouting orders, tossing equipment along supply lines, and she can just barely see the Millennium Falcon at the far end of the landing strip. Why couldn't it be closer, just this once?

Scanning the sky, she doesn't see the telltale lights of TIE-fighters or Stormtrooper transports, so there's still enough time to get Chewie and Master Luke and maybe General Organa and…Stormtroopers. _Finn._

She almost stops running, she's so shocked. How could she have forgotten Finn? Someone had told her he was out on a training patrol with his rookie squad when she got back and she'd been so tired, and she was so worried that Master Luke would leave his sister and decide it was the perfect time to demand 200 inverted push-ups, that she'd just slipped into her room and _how in the hells_ has she managed to be back on D'Qar for hours without seeing Finn?

Her legs are on autopilot and she just about slams into the Falcon before she can stop herself. She fumbles for the control panel, hands shaking, ears pricked for the sound of the enemy. Instead, she hears her name.

"Rey!"

She turns around, lightsaber at the ready because all that is keeping her upright is adrenaline and it could be _Snoke_ for all she knows.

It's Finn. Finn in a new shirt and different pants, but the same jacket as before. He's breathing hard and limping and he must have been following her for a while. Had he called her?

"Kriff, you run fast," he says, bent double to catch his breath.

She turns back to the control panel, shaky hands completing the entry code on the third try. "Come on, get in!" she says to him.

He looks at her like she's speaking Shyriiwook. "Finn, come on, we have to go!" The sirens are still blaring from the other side of the airfield, rising and falling in time with her pounding heart. How can he not have heard them? _She_ grabs _his_ hand for a change and pulls him towards the ramp.

"Rey," he says, feet planted, still breathless. "Rey, it's a drill."

He sounds so desperate, but she doesn't understand.

"It's just a drill," he huffs.

She stares at him. Drills are combat practice. This is an evacuation.

"What?"

He straightens, finally able to breathe. "It's just a drill. We're not evacuating. It's just practice." He looks guilty, like she might explode at him. "Protocol Theta is practice."

"Everything alright?"

She jumps. She didn't hear anyone approach. The best pilot in the Resistance - in the galaxy? - jogs up, looking as relaxed as if he wakes up to sirens and goes for a run before dawn every day – maybe that's what outstanding Resistance pilots do. She looks back and forth between him and Finn, at the personnel further down the field. They all look so _calm._

"A drill?" Her voice sounds weak and breathy.

The men look at each other, confused. "They didn't tell you?"

Now she looks confused. "What?"

Slowly, Poe's face lights up with understanding. "You missed dinner. They would have told the guests at dinner."

She turns back to Finn, who is still cringing. "A drill?"

The adrenalin is running out and fury is taking its place. Her first sleep in a proper bed in a proper structure on a halfway dry planet in _months_ and they scare her awake for _practice_? It is taking all her training to keep her temper in check and she thinks she may be failing as Finn looks more and more uncertain, and even the sirens cut out as the pressure in her head builds, and -

And then, out of nowhere, Poe begins to laugh.

For a moment, she can only stare. Rain begins to fall, filling the hush that the sirens left behind. And then, slowly, a giggle begins to work its way up from her belly and she reaches a hand up to cover her mouth because Jedis most certainly do not giggle. But one look at poor Finn's face is too much; he looks so ridiculous, confused and incredulous all at once, and she can't possibly stay quiet.

Her laughter and the increasing rain makes Poe laugh all the harder, which spurs her on as well. They both make the mistake of looking at Finn, who now seems concerned that they might both be mad, and that makes it even worse.

It is all she can do to stay standing, and she drops all her pack, with all the dry clothes she owns, on the wet runway as laughter shakes her whole body.

Looking back and forth between her and Poe, Finn's mouth begins to turn up at the corners and suddenly, she is glad she woke up. The three of them are slowly but surely being soaked to the bone, and in a minute, they will go inside and be scolded for their carelessness and lack of discipline. There will be dry towels and hot caf, and their superiors will shake their heads and tell them to get some rest. Tired and wet and mad as she was, this is suddenly a perfect moment.

* * *

From beneath the temporary shelter set up for Resistance leaders at the end of the airfield, a Jedi and a General watch three figures walk back towards the base. They have their arms around one another, and though they stumble, laughing uproariously, they never let go.

* * *

 _A/N: This is my attempt at a do-over debut into Star Wars fanfic. Inspired by a record-setting Halloween in my university residence (8 fire alarms in one night), and a prank pulled at summer camp involving sleeping counselors and an air horn. Hope you enjoy! - AJ_


End file.
